President Trump has signed orders to deploy another 400 US marines to Syria. This will increase the number of American special-forces ground troops in Syria to approximately 1,000, who are backed by the devastating force of the US Air Force. This relatively small number does not reflect the real strength of the US intervention, since the US troops on the ground are equipped with heavy arms, especially light tanks, mortars and other artillery. In addition to the US intervention, we have witnessed during the past year and a half the brutal intervention of Russian imperialism in support of the Assadist army, which peaked in the occupation of Free Eastern Aleppo and is now mostly focused on the province of Idlib which is still defended by various Syrian rebel forces.

Since the outbreak of the Syrian Revolution in 2011, a huge proportion of the reformist left, especially the Stalinists, have continually slandered the uprising as a CIA-conspiracy. They have claimed that the various Syrian rebels, who represent the aspiration of the Syrian popular masses to overthrow the Assad dictatorship, were simply “agents of imperialism.” As proof for this contention they have repeatedly stated that the Assad regime was supposedly “anti-imperialist,” and that western imperialism lent mostly rhetorical support to the Syrian revolution while trying to influence in it by arming some rebel groups, as well as buying off some rebel commanders in exile.

In light of Trump’s new deployment of ground troops to Syria, we can now clearly see that these slanderous lies of the reformist left have no actual basis in reality. Rather, there is a consensus among the imperialist Great Powers – including both the US and Russia – that the Assadist state needs to survive, as it is the only means to guarantee the ongoing oppression and exploitation of the Syrian workers and peasants. (1) Therefore, the goal of the so called “peace-talks” in Astrachan is to force the Syrian opposition to succumb to the central demand of the regional and imperialist powers: complete capitulation.

Support the Kurdish struggle for national self-determination! No to the subordination of the PYD/YPG to US Imperialism!

Another part of the left has been highly uncritical of the Kurdish YPG militia and their party, the PYD, claiming that it is a supposed progressive alternative to Daesh/IS, the Assad regime, and the Syrian rebels who represent the revolution of the Syrian popular masses. However, in fact, the PYD has established an autocratic, basically one-party rule in the areas which it controls. It also regularly collaborates with the Assad regime and has even undertaken a number of sectarian assaults against the Arab-Sunni population, which it camouflages by claiming to be fighting against Daesh/IS. Furthermore, the PYD/YPG leadership is deeply pro-imperialist, openly collaborating with the US military. It’s no coincidence that American ground troops, as well as the US Air Force, is fighting alongside them, increasingly tightening imperialist control over them.

It is vital that Kurdish revolutionaries learn from the past and understand that, sooner or later, the imperialist Great Powers will betray them, as they have always done in the past. A free and really independent Kurdistan cannot be established with the help of the US Marine Corps. Even if a Kurdish state were to emerge as a result of the wars in Syria and Iraq, it will be a mere colony of the US and consequently draw the hatred of the other peoples in the region.

What is necessary for Kurdish revolutionaries is to conduct an independent struggle for a free, red Kurdistan, meaning that the imperialist troops have to be kicked out. This is especially germaine now, as most of the Kurdish areas in Syria have been liberated from Daesh/IS, and the YPG, with the support of American marines, is now mostly advancing into Arab-majority areas.

Defeat the imperialist powers!

The RCIT, together with all consistent anti-imperialists, stands for the defeat of all imperialist troops in Syria. We do not support their crusade “against terrorism.” Although Daesh/IS is a brutal, arch-reactionary Islamist force, which actively stabbed the struggle against the Assad regime in the back, we totally oppose the war of Trump, Putin and Assad against them. We support the military struggle of those forces which are doing the actually fighting to defeat and drive out the imperialist invaders.

Only an independent struggle of the oppressed peoples in the region against Daesh/IS can ensure a progressive outcome, one that will involve the defeat of this counter-revolutionary threat. This is why the struggle of numerous Syrian rebels against Daesh deserves the support of consistent revolutionaries.

We stand for the total defeat of the biggest murderers of all, who are the US, Russian and European imperialists who bear the responsibility for the death of millions! We call upon all forces defending the Syrian Revolution to direct their weapons against the troops of imperialism, but at the same time to continue the struggle against Assad while also defending the popular masses against the Daesh/IS butchers!

* Down with imperialism! Defeat the intervention of the US, EU and Russia!

* Victory to the Syrian Revolution! For a multinational, independent Syria led by the workers and peasants – free of sectarianism, foreign occupation and dictatorship!

* For mass mobilizations and strikes of workers, migrants and youth in the US, Europe and Russia to stop their imperialist aggression and colonization of the peoples of the Middle East!

International Secretariat of the RCIT

Footnotes

(1) This recently intensified collaboration between the imperialist great powers against the Syrian Revolution – irrespective of their rivalry – has been reflected in meetings between the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff US General Joseph Dunford and his Russian counterpart Valery Gerasimov on 16 February (in Baku) and on 7 March (in Antalya). (See Joe Macaron: The Sheriff of Manbij: US makes debut in the Syrian War, 11 March 2017, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/03/sheriff-manbij-debut-syrian-war-170311075055718.html)

Another example for the direct collaboration between US imperialism and its Kurdish allies with the Assad regime is the recent development around the northern city of Manbij. Reuters, as well as many other news agency, reported: “Syrian government forces have taken over positions from a U.S.-backed militia in the northern city of Manbij on part of a frontline with Turkish-backed rebel forces, in line with a deal brokered by Russia, the militia’s spokesman said on Monday.” (Reuters: Syrian government forces take over positions from U.S.-backed militia in northern Syria: militia spokesman, Mar 6, 2017, http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-manbij-idUSKBN16D25L)

RCIT: World Perspectives 2017: The Struggle against the Reactionary Offensive in the Era of Trumpism, Theses on the World Situation, the Perspectives for Class Struggle and the Tasks of Revolutionaries, 18 December 2016, Chapter IV. The Middle East and the State of the Arab Revolution, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/world-perspectives-2017/part-4/

RCIT: World Perspectives 2016: Advancing Counterrevolution and Acceleration of Class Contradictions Mark the Opening of a New Political Phase. Theses on the World Situation, the Perspectives for Class Struggle and the Tasks of Revolutionaries, 23 January 2016, Chapter IV.2. Counterrevolutionary Offensive: The Retreat of the Arab Revolution Continues Despite Heroic Popular Struggles, https://www.thecommunists.net/theory/world-perspectives-2016/part6/